1. #YDF2017

2. Inside the teenage brain
Lucía Magis-Weinberg
Department of Experimental Psychology
University College London
Contact:
@luciamawe

3. Teenage driving: a complex picture
Cognitive and social development
Individual personality traits
Driving experience and ability
Characteristics of the vehicle
Roadway environment to influence driving behaviour and safety

4. Teenage driving: a complex picture
Teens usually know they are driving in a way that is potentially dangerous
Many teens define “safe driving” as being able to drive recklessly without having an accident

5. Health paradox of adolescence
Adolescence is the healthiest period of life
Peak in strength, reaction times, immune function
Adolescents are smart and react quickly
Overall morbidity and mortality rates increase 200 percent from childhood to late adolescence
Many of the primary causes of death and disability are related to problems with control of behaviour and emotion (crashes, suicide, substance use, risky sexual behaviours)

6. Hallmarks of adolescence
Risk-taking and novelty seeking
Impulsivity
Increased focus on the social context
These characteristics foster the development of independence at the same time that they increase young people’s exposure to risk
They involve both natural and adaptive processes

7. When driving with peers teens are undertaking two separate, challenging, and complex tasks
Operating vehicle and attending to road and traffic
Being keenly attuned to the behaviour of and interactions among peers

8. Risk taking behavior in adolescents is related to brain development
relatively weak behavioral control functioning
protracted development of prefrontal cortex
high sensitivity for reward
earlier development of limbic system

9. During adolescence brains undergo pruning and myelination becoming more efficient

10. Brain pruning occurs at different rates depending on the region
Gogtay, 2004
Houston, Hertig & Sowell, 2015

11. Brain pruning occurs at different rates depending on the region
Gogtay et al., 2004

12. From Crone and Dahl, 2012

14. From Crone and Dahl, 2012

15. From Crone and Dahl, 2012

16. From Crone and Dahl, 2012

17. From Crone and Dahl, 2012

18. From Crone and Dahl, 2012

19. imbalance Limbic regions: rewards, emotions, peers
Frontal regions: cognitive control
Sommerville, Jones, Casey 2010

20. Sensation seeking peak (~19) precedes self regulation ability peak (~24)
Steinberg et al. 2017

21. Pattern is consistent in a large, multi-country sample
Sensation seeking peak (~19) precedes self regulation ability peak (~24)
Pattern is consistent in a large, multi-country sample
Steinberg et al. 2017

22. imbalance Limbic regions: rewards, emotions, peers
Frontal regions: cognitive control
Sommerville, Jones, Casey 2010

23. Teen brain: powerful accelerator/ underdeveloped brakes

24. Adult brain: more balance accelerator/brakes

25. It is all about the context
Cold cognition
Absence of stress, peers, distraction, strong emotions, excitement or reward.
Most teens function well, and perform similarly to adults
Limbic system is not very active  frontal regions can regulate behaviour

26. It is all about the context
Hot cognition
Presence of stress, peers, distraction, strong emotions, excitement or reward.
Regulatory capacity can be easily overwhelmed by strong emotion, multitasking, sleep deprivation, or substance abuse (Luciana et al. 2005)
Particular risk for teen drivers: extra passengers, music, cell phones, etc.
Limbic system is over active  frontal control regions struggle to regulate behaviour

27. Hot contexts in the lab

28. Teens failure to inhibit response to happy faces is paralleled by increased activity in limbic regions
Figure from Blakemore & Robbins, 2012
Study: Sommerville, Jones and Casey, 2010

29. Teens’ and young adults’ diminished cognitive control in response to negative cues was paralleled by their decreased prefrontal activity
Cohen et al. 2016

30. Teens make more risky decisions when watched by peers
Figure from Blakemore & Robbins, 2012
Study: Chein, et al. 2011

31. Increased limbic activity when teens are watched by peers
Figure from Blakemore & Robbins, 2012
Study: Chein, et al. 2011

32. Driving: cognition in a hot context
Inexperience
Developing cognitive abilities
Impaired multitasking
Impaired attention span
Social influence
Peers who value risky behaviour
Peers who need social acceptance
Riskiest teens will be the loudest
Teens’ relative lack of immunity to peer pressure
The teen who is driving cannot easily see the faces of the passengers: even more attention to social dynamics

33. Peers activate limbic system and hot cognition making cognitive control less effective
Adolescents are intensely attuned to social interactions with their peers
Peer interactions often make risky behaviours more likely
Teens typically initiate dangerous behaviours with peers (25% of death in US are the result of activities initiated with peers during adolescence)

34. Peers activate limbic system and hot cognition making cognitive control less effective
Teens are more prone to thrill-seeking
Their quest to seem mature and to increase their autonomy can lead them to take risks
Deviance increases at about age 11, peaks at around age 16 and drop off gradually over the following 10 years.
Teens’ great need for social acceptance combines with inexperience in handling pressure from peers

35. What is in it for the adolescent?
Mills and Blakemore, 2014

36. Late adolescents (18–22) in peer groups make more prudent decisions when an older (25–30) adult is present
Silva et al. 2016

37. Adolescent decision making
Contrary to popular belief, teens do not believe they are invulnerable
Perceptions of many risks are fairly accurate
Tend to rate their overall risk of premature death as far higher
Both adolescents and adults have an optimistic bias and are overconfident in their own control over risk
Teens lack understanding and have inaccurate thinking about cumulative risk
Teens correctly assess the risk associated with any single car trip as relatively low
Each time the teen takes an uneventful drive, their perception of riskiness goes down while perception of benefits go up

38. Adolescent decision making
Teens
believe they can handle hazardous situations
are overconfident of his or her driving skills
are decreasingly vigilant about safety
Since the teen is also less experienced and competent at the wheel than the average adult, the optimistic bias is particularly hazardous for teen drivers

39. Sleep deprivation
Adequate sleep is an important contributor to alertness and the capacity to focus on details, and is crucial for adequate brain development
Adolescents are chronically short on sleep

40. Teen peak in crashes caused by falling asleep at the wheel
Age distribution of drivers in fall-asleep crashes. SOURCE: Reprinted, with permission, from Pack et al., Copyright 1995 by Elsevier.

41. Sleep deprivation: high school students need ~9 h of sleep per night, but get between 7 and 7.5 h
Biological factors
Social factors
Sleep needs increase and circadian rhythms change
Biologically driven tendency to stay up later at night and sleep longer in the morning
Less parental control
Increasing academic obligations
Increasing social opportunities
97% of teens have at least one electronic device in their bedroom

42. Sleep
Adolescents stay up too late, but they are also required to wake up quite early for school
Effects of sleepiness
After 17 h awake (teen who woke up at 6:30 am and is socializing at 11:30), a teen’s performance is impaired to the same extent that it would be with a blood alcohol content of 0.05 percent
After 24 h awake (driving back home at 6:30 am), impairment compared to blood alcohol of percent
Teens are sleepiest in the morning.
Rate of fall-asleep crashes for 16 – 25 yo confirms peak of crashing between 6 and 8 in the morning (Pack et al. 1995)

43. Interventions
Interventions need to draw on the relevance of social context of teen driving and the cognitive and social development that occur during these years
Strategies that link responsible driving with attributes or rewards that teen value
Monetary rewards for demonstrating responsible driving skills?
Passing as series of tests?

44. Adolescence is a key transitional period of both vulnerability and plasticity
Both cognitive and emotional, reward-processing function develop profoundly during adolescence
Emotion and reward processing brain centers mature before cognitive control
This imbalance has adaptive advantages but can sometimes have negative consequences in terms of risk taking behaviour
Adolescents really struggle to regulate behaviour in hot contexts. Driving is a particularly dangerous hot context which combines thrill and peers.
Contact:
@luciamawe

45. References
Blakemore, S-J., & Mills, K.L. (2014). Is adolescence a sensitive period for sociocultural processing? Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 
Blakemore, S-J. & Robbins, T.W. (2012). Decision-making in the adolescent brain. Nature Neuroscience 15,
Chein, J., Albert, D., O'Brien, L., Uckert, U., & Steinberg, L. (2011). Peers influence adolescent risk-taking by heightening sensitivity to reward. Developmental Science, 14(2), F1-F10.
Cohen, A., Briener, K., Steinberg., L., et al. (in press). When does an adolescent become an adult? Assessing cognitive capacity under emotional influences. Psychological Science.
Gogtay N., Giedd J. N., Lusk L., Hayashi K. M., Greenstein D., Vaituzis A. C., et al. Thompson P. M. (2004). Dynamic mapping of human cortical development during childhood through early adulthood. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 101, 8174– /pnas
Silva, K., Chein, J., & Steinberg, L. (2016). Adolescent Peer Groups Make More Prudent Decisions in the Presence of a Slightly Older Adult. Psychological Science.
Somerville, L.H., Jones, R.M., Casey, B.J., A time of change: behavioral and neural correlates of adolescent sensitivity to appetitive and aversive environmental cues. Brain and Cogn. 72 (1), 124–133.
National Research Council (US), Institute of Medicine (US), and Transportation Research Board (US) Program Committee for a Workshop on Contributions from the Behavioral and Social Sciences in Reducing and Preventing Teen Motor Crashes. Preventing Teen Motor Crashes: Contributions from the Behavioral and Social Sciences: Workshop Report. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); , Characteristics of Adolescence That Can Affect Driving. Available from:

46. #YDF2017